Endorsing Proposition 67

We encourage you to vote yes on Prop. 67 on the Nov. 8 statewide ballot.

Plastic bags and egret in the LA River. Photo: Taylor Flannigan

In 2014, California passed a law to phase out wasteful, single-use plastic grocery bags, with broad support from local governments, business groups, unions, retailers, and environmental organizations. More than 150 communities across California have already banned plastic bags. But plastic bag companies from Texas, South Carolina, and New Jersey are trying to overturn this law. Now it’s up to us to protect California’s plastic bag ban—the first statewide bag ban in the nation—to save our oceans, marine wildlife, and our neighborhoods from plastic pollution.

The effects of plastics on marine birds are well-documented, several studies report that “single-use” bags are among the plastics ingested by birds such as albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters, which can mistake the bags for prey. Other birds, such as pelicans and gulls, commonly find themselves entangled in the bags.

As Audubon California has experienced first-hand at sites such as the Audubon Center at Debs Park in Los Angeles and the Richardson Bay Audubon Sanctuary in Tiburon, single-use plastic bags litter and degrade public places and reduce visitors’ enjoyment of nature.